Somerset proves to be hit and miss for keen anglers
WE OFTEN talk of how the bass lakes like Somerset can be hit and miss.
One day they bite the next they don’t and that has never been truer than recently.
On Friday I fished with freshwater fishing charter guide Matthew Langford and pro angler Daniel McCoy.
We fished the entire day for three small bass.
The next day the boys fished a tournament call Basstasstic and in the first morning session they hauled in more than 30 big bass followed by the afternoon session that got even better.
Not only did they land lots of big bass, they also caught a world-record Australian bass weighing in at a whopping 4.45kg which was 700g larger than the previous record which stood for 13 years.
Sunday came and the bite slowed. Through the week there has been many great catches at Somerset Dam on spoons and plastics around Pelican Point and Kirkleigh but some days are definitely better than others. Somerset Dam is renowned for having the biggest bass in Australia and it proved it this week. I know I’ll be heading there more often over the coming weeks.
Wivenhoe Dam
A family fishing comp was held here last weekend also with plenty of good catches reported.
The bass dominated the bite with plenty of big ones caught on lures.
Wivenhoe is a great dam for the fact that anglers can land bass and yellowbelly of the edges on jackall lures and in the deeper water on blades and spoons. While the bait fisherman can have good success on worms and saltwater yabbies.
Cressbrook Dam
Another predominant bass lake produced good fishing this week.
Plenty of keen anglers have been rewarded at Cressbrook although the size hasn’t quite been up to Somerset sizes.
There has still been some big bass caught again on spoons and plastics. The exceptional bite in the bass lakes and the size increase could have something to do with the huge amount of boney bream in the lakes.
They’re a fantastic bait source for all the fish and they are thriving on it.
The future is bright for the bass fishing as usually the good fishing doesn’t happen until spring so we are early this year and looking forward to a big year catching giant bass.
Leslie Dam
Leslie is getting extremely low down to around 8% which can make it difficult to get larger boats in but the fishing has been great.
There have been lots of decent sized cod being caught on spinnerbaits to the edges at the dam wall end of the lake.
Jigging zx blades and using saltwater yabbies has produced a good mixture of cod and yellowbelly in the deeper water.
The lower water level usually helps the fishing and this is the case for Leslie.
Coolmunda Dam
Although the overall fishing has been pretty quiet at Coolmunda there has been some real quality caught this week.
Cod over the 80cm mark are showing up pretty regularly when casting spinnerbaits in the timber up the back of the lake.
Even though its really shallow some big cod are coming out of 4-6 ft of water.
Saltwater yabbies and zx blades have produced some nice yellowbelly out in the main basin near the dam wall and out from the boat ramp.
Cooby dam
Cooby is still consistently producing good fish with the afternoon bite by far the best.
The ideal window is from 2.30pm to 5.30pm which has produced the goods. Again saltwater yabbies and ecogear zx blades have done all the damage fished over any deep structures or out from main points.
Gold Coast
The inshore fishing has been really good with plenty of good sized bream, flathead and tailor getting around the broadwater.
The plus is these fish all eat the same lures and baits so you never know what you’re going to catch.
Small hardbodies and soft plastics work well while.
Lightly weighted sand worms and saltwater yabbies work great as well.
Fishing the deep channels through the dropping tide will give the best bite while there has been a decent surface bite on the top of the tide.
The northern end of the broadwater has produced the